• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.320-328
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• 2008

Background: Numerous surgical devices for mitral repair have been used in the past with good results. In this study we describe a simple annuloplasty technique with using a new device ($Mitracon^{(R)}$). The aim of this study was to assess its efficacy and surgical results with using $Mitracon^{(R)}$. Material and Method: From May 2003 to October 2005, 46 patients (21 women and 25 men (mean age of $51.4{\pm}17.8$ years) with mitral regurgitation from various causes were treated with either the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ (the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group) or the Capentier Edward rigid ring (the CE group). The median follow-up duration was 18.9 months. Result: The mean grade of mitral regurgitation before and immediately after surgery in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group and the CE group decreased from $3.2{\pm}0.8$ to $0.6{\pm}0.7$ and $3.4{\pm}0.7$ to $0.3{\pm}0.5$, respectively. There were no significant changes in the ejection fraction either between the two groups or before and immediately after surgery. No deaths were seen in either group. Early postoperative echocardiography of all 46 patients showed only trivial mitral regurgitation or none at all. Echocardiography at a median of 18.9 months also showed no progression in mitral regurgitation. The mean grade of mitral regurgitation in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group at this time point decreased from $3.2{\pm}0.8$ to $0.8{\pm}0.7$ (p<0.05). The CE group also showed a similar degree of decrease from $3.4{\pm}0.7$ to $0.3{\pm}0.6$ (p<0.05). The mitral valve area in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group at 1 year follow-up was $3.3{\pm}0.9cm^2$. The mitral valve area in the CE group was $2.7{\pm}0.6cm^2$. The mean mitral pressure gradient in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group at 1 year follow-up was $3.1{\pm}1.3$ mmHg. The mean pressure gradient in the CE group was $4.5{\pm}2.1$ mmHg, although any statistical significant difference for this between the groups was not reached. Conclusion: The present study showed the described technique to be safe and effective in the intermediate term. Because long term results are unavailable, a more extensive prospective randomized multicenter trial may be warranted to determine whether this procedure should be generally applied for repair of mitral valve disease.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.275-278
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• 2004

A 9-month-old male infant was admitted for evaluation of incidentally noticed cardiac mass. The patient had no symptoms and there was no hemodynamic abnormality. Echocardiographic finding showed a huge left ventricular free wall mural mass, which did not obstruct the left ventricular outflow tract. Maximal excision of the left ventricular free wall mass was performed. The pathologic finding revealed cardiac fibroma. During the 7-month of follow-up after surgery, there was no evidence of arrhythmia or tumor recurrence.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2010

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is rare disease and a variant of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with prevalence of 1 in 500 in the general population. Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with apical aneurysm and intramural thrombus is extremely rare. We report a case of apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy progressing to left ventricular apical aneurysm with intramural thrombus diagnosed by contrast echocardiography.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.32B no.10
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• pp.1294-1304
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• 1995

In this paper, a method has been proposed for the fully automatic detection of left ventricular endocardial boundary in B-mode short axis echocardiography without manual intervention by human operator. The proposed method makes use of the weighted model that approximates to endocardium and incomplete edge information for echocardiography. Therefore, this method is more effective than boundary detection by only edge information. The implementation of this method is as follows. First, the proposed algorithms are used in order to detect the approximate boundary, then a weighted model with the approximate boundary is constructed. Finally, the cavity center of the left ventricle performing the Hough transform with the weighted model and edge image can be found automatically, and then the endocardial boundary using detected center, original image, weighted model, and edge image can be detected. validations of this method with experimental results on echo image of dog's heart and clinical echocardiography is verified.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics S
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• v.34S no.5
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• pp.35-44
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• 1997

In this paper, a an algorithm that detects the endocardial boundary, expanding the region from endocardial cavity using fuzzy inference, is proposed. This algorithm decides the ventricular cavity by fuzzy inference in process of searching each pixel from the inside of left ventricle in echocardial image and expands it. Uncertainty and fuzziness exists in decision of endocardial boundary. Therefore, we convert the lingustic representation of mean, standard deviation, and threshold value that are characteristic variables of endocardial boundary to fuzzy input and output variables. And, we extract proposed method is robuster to noise than radial searching method that is highly dependent on center position. To prove the similarity of detected boundary by fuzzy nference, we used the measures of SIZE, correlation coefficient, MSD, and RMSE and had acquired reasonable results.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.407-412
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• 2005

Echocardiography is one of the most frequently used techniques for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases. Over the last twenty years, technological advances have enabled the application of high-quality imaging. Important recent developments have occurred in echocardiography that are already being used clinically. Equipment and hardware is now available to produce reai time three-dimensional and contrast enhanced imaging.. Tissue Doppler and stress echocardiography have provided potential benefit to analyze hemodynamic information of heart. This review discusses each of these new developments and their potential impact on the practice of echocardioaraphy and cardiology in general.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1094-1096
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• 1998

Biatrial myxomas are extremely rare, and only two cases have been reported in Korea so far. We report a 60-year-old male patient with decreased mentality due to embolization from myxoma. In this case, two pedicles grew into both atrial chamber separately from the different origins at the atrial septum. The patient underwent emergency operation immediately after the diagnosis by an echocardiography.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.118-124
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• 2001

배경: 승모판막재건술이 승모판막치환술보다 술후 좌심실기능이 보다 향상될 수 있으며 또한 수술사망율과 인공판막에 관련된 합병즈인 혈전색전증, 심내막염 및 항응고제사용에 따른 출혈빈도는 낮다고 하였다. 방법: 1996년 1월부터 2000년 5월까지 승모판막폐쇄부전으로 진단된 환자 87례를 대상으로 재건술군 59례, 치환술군 28례로 나누어 비교분석하였다. 결과: 술전 환자들의 NYHA 기능분류, 흉부 X-선상 심흉곽의 비, 심초음파상 좌심실박출계수는 두 군간에 유의한 차이가 없었다. 원인질환은 양군에서 퇴행성 병변이 가장 많았다. 체외순환시간은 재건술군에서 유의하게 길었으나 수술사망은 양군에서 없었다. 술후 NYHA 기능분류, 흉부 X-선상 심흉곽의 비는 향상되었으나 두 군간에 차이가 없었으며 술후 좌심실박출계수는 두 군에서 감소되었으나 유의한 차이는 없었다. 결론: 이상의 결과로 승모판막폐쇄부전에 대하여 재건술이 치환술처럼 비교적 안전하게 시행될 수 있는 술식으로 사료된다.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.655-658
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• 1987

Aortic annulus size was measured by two-dimensional echocardiography [2DE] in 29 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement or double valve replacement in order to predict prosthetic aortic valve size. Fifteen patients had aortic stenoinsufficiency, eleven had aortic insufficiency, and three had aortic stenosis. 2DE measurements of aortic annulus diameter, as determined from the parasternal long-axis view, demonstrated a high correlation with actual prosthetic valve size implanted at surgery [r=0.85, p<0.05]. 2DE exactly predicted actual prosthetic valve size in 8 of 29 patients [27.6%], was within 1mm of prosthetic valve size in 11 of 29 patients [37.9%], was within 2mm of prosthetic valve size in 8 of 29 patients, and was within 3mm of prosthetic valve size in 2 patients.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1994 no.12
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• pp.9-13
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• 1994

The Heat Anisotropic Diffusion Method has shown very effective for the contour detection of 2-D echocardiogram. To implement this algorithm, we have to choose the parameter C, K, and the threshold level. The choice of C and K are not very sensitive for the good edge detection of the echocardiogram, however the choice of the threshold level is very critical. Until now the threshold level is chosen by the trial and error method. In this paper, we present an automatic threshold decision method from the histogram of the gradient of boundary-like pixels.